The New York Times has much to answer for in its coverage of the Middle East. Its relentlessly anti-Israel coverage, from its reporters on the spot, from its columnists (with the exception of Bret Stephens), from the Op/Ed articles it chooses to publish, and from the editorials it publishes, have earned it pride of place with […]
Under pressure from Erdogan, US swiftly condemns Kurdish PKK
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated that the Kurdish PKK group “bears responsibility” for the execution of 13 Turkish hostages in Iraq over the weekend. The speed at which condemnation of the PKK occurred without allowing time for analysis and investigation is worrying. It suggests a tendency toward appeasement, which is no surprise […]
Syria: Islamic State raids two women’s homes, murders them with machine guns, for working for ‘apostate’ group
Remember: the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam, so its members wouldn’t really care if someone was working for a group that had departed from Islamic norms. Right? Everyone in the West tells us so: every last non-Muslim politician in the U.S. and Europe is sure that ISIS has hijacked Islam, which is […]
Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
This incident is reminiscent of a strange story in the Qur’an. A mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So […]
Syria: Brother of Women’s Protection Units fighter murders her because she ‘brought shame and dishonor upon family’
An indelible detail leaps out from this report: “In the region, there is a history of men being accused of killing women or girls perceived to have brought shame to a family or tribe being given token sentences, or in other cases, escaping justice entirely.” Now, why is that? Her brother said he killed her […]
Honor killing in Iraqi Kurdistan: Muslim murders his two daughters, hides bodies
“Violence against women is common in Iraqi Kurdistan, despite government promises to prevent it.” Why is that? A culture of violence, the foundational text of which commands men to beat women from whom they “fear disobedience” (Qur’an 4:34), is going to give rise to this sort of thing. In the Qur’an also is the strange […]
Syria: Muslims demand Christian convert teacher turn over his school to them, arrest him for apostasy
“Mr Muhammad, who works as an English teacher and headmaster, refused the group’s orders to hand his school building over to them so they could turn it into an Islamic school.” That was an unconscionable display of effrontery from a man who, as far as the Muslims of Failaq al-Sham were concerned, should have submitted […]
Syrian Government Enraged That Kurds Intend to Sell Kurdish Oil
Northeastern Syria is inhabited – and has been for many centuries – by the Kurdish people. That territory also happens to be the oil-bearing part of Syria, currently held by local Kurdish forces of the YPG (People’s Protection Units), and by the American troops still in Syria, as President Trump said, to “guard the oil.” […]
Turks fight Kurdish Leftists and Antifa in Vienna, Austrian Chancellor accuses Erdogan of stoking tensions in EU
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz “has accused Turkey of sowing strife in Europe” after members of the Turkish Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Turkish political organization, “clashed with Kurdish leftists and their Antifa allies in Vienna.” This is nothing new. “In 2016, the two groups clashed in the city of Duisburg and both Turks and Kurds briefly […]
Germany: Muslim “refugee” admits being bomb-maker for planned jihad massacre
Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, and are largely covered in the media as a persecuted minority that is especially under threat from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In January 2018, 90,000 mosques prayed Qur’anic conquest prayers calling on Muslims to be “ruthless against unbelievers” and for victory against the Kurds, right before thousands of Turkish […]